Karzai sworn in as Afghan president

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Hamid Karzai solemnly holds the Koran as he is sworn in as Afghanistan's first democratically elected president in a ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Kabul yesterday.Photo: Reuters

Hamid Karzai was sworn in on Tuesday as Afghanistan's first
popularly elected president, opening a new chapter for the
impoverished country while warning that the wars against terrorism
and drugs will require sustained international help.

A smiling Karzai, wearing a traditional green robe and a black
lambskin hat, received a standing ovation on his arrival. US
Vice-President Dick Cheney, the highest-ranking American official
to visit Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, was
among the 600 guests, including 150 foreign dignitaries.

Tight security ensured a peaceful ceremony as a children's choir
sang the Afghan national anthem in the restored hall of the
war-damaged former royal palace. Karzai placed his right hand on a
copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book, and repeated an oath of
allegiance read to him by Afghanistan's white-bearded chief
justice, Fazl Hadi Shinwari.

"I swear to obey and safeguard the provisions of the sacred
religion of Islam, to observe the constitution and other laws of
Afghanistan and supervise their implementation," Karzai said, "and
with the assistance of God and the support of the nation, to make
great and sincere efforts for the happiness and progress of the
people of Afghanistan."

Karzai then swore in his two deputies, Ahmad Zia Massood and
Karim Khalili, members of the country's two largest ethnic
minorities.

Wary of attacks by Taliban or al-Qaeda militants, Afghan and
international forces launched their biggest security operation
since the October 9 election that gave Karzai a landslide victory.
Police sealed off the four-kilometre route from Kabul's airport to
the palace, and NATO troops patrolled the city on foot.

Cheney, arriving at the main US base north of Kabul early on
Tuesday, congratulated some of the 17,000 US troops in the country
for helping give democracy a chance to take root.

"For the first time the people of this country are looking
confident about the future of freedom and peace," Cheney said.
"Freedom still has enemies here in Afghanistan, and you are here to
make those enemies miserable."

Before the ceremony, Karzai thanked the United States, his main
sponsor, for its help.

"Without that help, Afghanistan would be in the hands of
terrorists," he said. "Terrorism as a force is gone. As individuals
they are all around and we will continue to look for them."

"There are still groups, extremists, that would like to take
this country back - the Taliban, the al-Qaeda - and use it for a
base for terrorist activities around the world as they did on
9/11," Rumsfeld told a group of special forces soldiers at Bagram.
"But it's not going to happen."

Annan warned in a report to the Security Council that unless
Karzai tackled Afghanistan's surge in opium production and its arms
proliferation, much of its recent progress could be seriously
undermined and "the economy may well be subsumed by the illicit
drugs industry".

Annan said that Karzai's inauguration offered the opportunity to
select a cabinet "that is able to extend government authority
throughout the country and deliver the basic services".

The US-backed leader's inauguration is the culmination of a
three-year drive to transform Afghanistan from a training ground
for al-Qaeda extremists into a moderate Islamic republic.

Under Karzai's interim leadership, Afghans adopted a new
constitution labelled by the United States as the most progressive
in the region and held their first Western-style vote, despite
militant attacks that killed at least 15 election workers.

About 3 million Afghan refugees displaced by more than two
decades of warfare have returned home, and women and girls are back
in jobs and schools from which they were barred under the previous
regime. The economy is growing strongly.

But Karzai faces daunting challenges during his five-year
term.

Insurgents continue to harass US and Afghan forces across a
broad swath of the south and east. American officials expect to
keep their force strength at about 18,000 at least until after
parliamentary elections slated for the spring.

However, Karzai has said the drug economy, which now accounts
for an estimated one-third of national income, is a bigger threat
than the insurgents and will be the top priority for the coming
years.

UN surveys show cultivation of opium poppy in Afghanistan, from
which most of the world's heroin is refined, jumped more than 60
per cent this year, and warn that drug smuggling mafias are taking
an iron grip on the country.

Afghanistan's red, black and green flag has been hung from
lampposts in downtown Kabul, and officials issued a commemorative
blue stamp featuring a triumphant-looking Karzai. The proceedings
were shown live on national television - where rickety power
supplies permitted.

"We hope he brings peace, stability and employment for us,"
shopkeeper Ahmed Khan said in Kandahar.